What is Gait Analysis?
Running assessments and gait analysis can be helpful for all types of runners, whether you are just starting out, or an experienced runner looking to improve your performance. During the analysis your Physiotherapist will assess multiple parameters that affect your running economy. How efficient you are during your stride will determine how much load is taken on by the muscles, joints and tendons.
Areas assessed:
- Foot strike – Do you land with your heel, midfoot or forefoot?
- Knee valgus – Does the knee fall inwards during stance phase?
- Pelvic drop – Do the hips fall side to side?
- Knee flexion angle – How much does the knee bend during stance and swing phases?
- Hip extension angle – How much does the hip extend during stance phases?
- Over striding – Does the foot land under or in front of the body?
For more information on the running gait, read one of our articles here.
What Will The Appointment Look Like?
A running assessment is a 30 minute consultation that will begin with one of our Physiotherapists taking a subjective history, to gain some information surrounding your running history, your goals, any past injuries and your medical history.
From there, you will be asked to run on a treadmill for 2-3 minutes. Your Physiotherapist will film you from a back and side view to get the data required. This video will then be broken down frame by frame to look for any areas to improve your efficiency and identify modifiable movement patterns or abnormalities.
Your Physiotherapist will then extract relevant information and assess the angles at relevant lower limb joints, trunk position and running parameters such as step and stride length.
Your Physiotherapist will discuss the findings with you, provide you with advice and education, and finally develop an individualised exercise program with you to address any deficits that are found.
How Can it Help?
Improving Performance and Injury Prevention
Addressing the deficits found during running gait will improve your performance, or “running economy”, as well as reduce your chance of getting injured in the future.
Certain patterns that are commonly seen in runners can lead to a misbalance in force creation and absorption, meaning certain areas experience more load than what they need to, and other areas might not be working hard enough.
An example of this might be running with increased knee valgus which can be a result of weakness in the hip, and lead to unnecessary loading at the knee. An individualised, functional exercise program that addresses weakness of the lateral hip muscles will assist in evening out the share of load when running.
Rehabilitation and Preventing Recurrence
Gait analysis can also be particularly useful in rehabilitation to prevent re-injury.
For example, someone who continually develops a patella tendinopathy might be running with too much of a forefoot strike, leading to increased load at the anterior knee.
Gait analysis will help confirm this, and with advice surrounding foot-strike patterns, as well as an exercise program aimed at improving strength and ankle dorsiflexion range, you can fix this recurring issue for good.
Booking an Appointment
You do not need a referral to see a Physiotherapist or to have a running assessment completed. Please call the clinic on 4929 3898 or click the link to book now!